Richard Masters says he does not believe Newcastle United's takeover outcome would have been any different with the presence of an independent regulator.
The Premier League supremo doubts that MP Tracey Crouch's fan-led review would have thrown up a different conclusion to the one top-flight chiefs did at St James' Park - even if it did take them 18 months to decide.
Masters has been pressed hard on whether he was right or wrong to give Newcastle's Saudi-backed takeover the green light back in October.
Masters said: "I can’t choose who is chairing a football club.
"The owners test doesn’t let us take a view on that.
"There are many high bars.
"Tracey is suggesting an integrity test.
"I don’t know if that is going to revolve around things like human rights.
"It is difficult for me to believe that an independent regulator would have come to a different conclusion on PIF."
Masters also insisted, speaking the BBC, that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund ticked all the boxes asked during top-flight tests.
He said: "We applied the rules and they passed the owners and directors test."
And Masters stated that Newcastle's takeover went through eventually as they came to the right decision and weren't put under pressure from the government.
He said: "No. All I would say, at various points there were discussions with the government, but no pressure."
